0:01 — People line the front walk of the State Street exit to the Capitol, preparing to honor the protesters who file out after the building is closed, as promised, at 4 p.m.

0:30 — Protesters file out to the chant of "Thank You... Thank You..."

1:45 — Meade asks a man with an "Ask Gandhi" sign if he's Gandhi.

2:13 — People lined up as if to ring the perimeter of the Capitol and sing "We will be peaceful, we will be strong."

3:16 — Dane County Sheriff's deputies tell Meade that no one will be arrested and, in fact, anyone who doesn't leave will be allowed to stay. They'll just have to get out of the way when the floor scrubbers come through.

4:53 — Meade talks to the woman with the "Greedy Obfuscating Plutocrats" sign.

Must be driving the right and fox "news" nuts that there have been zero arrests in 14 days, and not only that, the cops and protesters are getting along with each other. By the looks of it Meade may be the first.

Great work! Such a joy to watch the videos. While I suspect it makes no sense for Governor Walker to play into the media's hands. And, provide the videos that would run in a loop till the election of 2012. Much better just to wait. And, at some point (perhaps 3AM), those in the Capitol will be removed. The media will have left the building.

Anyway, on a previous posting Palladian put up a "media pass" that was such a hoot!

Up ahead? Yes. To gain access to public buildings there will be new enforcement. Perhaps the most clever will use features that Disney would use?

Garage: Must be driving the right and fox "news" nuts that there have been zero arrests in 14 days, and not only that, the cops and protesters are getting along with each other.

Hardly. If anything, this collusiuon between police and protesters only underscores our argument that PSUs should be banned. The police clearly have a conflict of interest. And its trumping their duty to enforce the law.

"Reporter" is a term generally applied to people who are paid to report the news.

Oh, but this is the brave new media world. That's such a Walter Cronkite era definition, and we shouldn't be limited by that! Certainly citizen journalists should be able to proudly call themselves reporters. After all, if you want the benefits of being part of the press, you shouldn't have a problem identifying yourself as such (with all the multifarious terms used for that fine profession) when asked.

No, my claim (which was pretty obvious) is that Meade seems to be happy to call himself a citizen journalist / press person / whatever when it suits him but backs away from those titles and becomes just an average guy when it doesn't suit him. This is just word-parsing and language games.

No, my claim (which was pretty obvious) is that Meade seems to be happy to call himself a citizen journalist / press person / whatever when it suits him but backs away from those titles and becomes just an average guy when it doesn't suit him.

Meade is a citizen journalist. That's an objective fact -- you're reading an Althouse news post about the protests.

He is not a professional journalist, which is why he answered "no" when asked if he was a reporter.

I hope that clears up your confusion, but you'll probably keep whining about how it isn't fair to call yourself a member of the press unless you collect a paycheck from a media conglomerate.

@ Somefeller - I'm curious to hear what your definition of "the Press" is. Do you have to be employed by a network? Do you have to have a degree in Journalism or Communications? Define it.

Ask that question to those who want to be defined as members of the press, and want to reap the benefits of that. I don't have a dog in that fight, and my entry into this discussion came from the standpoint of policemen controlling crowds. In that context, a press person is someone who has a press pass. Nothing more and nothing less. But obviously, what degree you have is irrelevant, and I don't think even Mr. Cronkite would have focused on what degree someone has.

Probably a local attorney who was there to make sure people in general and his side in particular don't get roughed up. That's another thing that isn't uncommon in big gatherings, regardless of the political stripe.

I hope that clears up your confusion, but you'll probably keep whining about how it isn't fair to call yourself a member of the press unless you collect a paycheck from a media conglomerate.

Where did I say you need to collect a paycheck from a media conglomerate to call yourself a member of the press? Cite, please. Perhaps you are the one who is confused.

"Must be driving the right and fox "news" nuts that there have been zero arrests in 14 days"

Or is it driving the left nuts? Who's more driven nuts by this no arrests thing, hmmm? I think it's magnificent judo. Scott Walker looks like the beleaguered decent man and the protesters have to keep sleeping on the marble floor... for the rest of their lives, apparently.

The whole camera on the prowl thing has been fascinating, unfortunately it has unmasked your state as about 3 steps away from the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, at which time unions will be considered redundant and abolished as an organization due to the fact that as a citizen you are a defacto union member, congrats.

lets see, in english that would be National Socialist American workers party. have fun.

As official as you want to be. But you probably still need to get a pass if you want to get at the press section at the Oscars or the Wisconsin Capitol. Something tells me the former option is a better one.

Then our only disagreement is whether its an outdated standard. They'll give any idiot a press pass.

Perhaps so. But the purpose of the press pass is as much a matter of crowd control as it is anything else. It isn't a professional certification or a statement of a job well done. It's just a way to manage an event and it's a necessary one.

The first sudden community uprisings and popular political movements started circa 1735. They were the result of Papers and Pamphlets that were written, printed and distributed quickly. The players in this new game had to have one thing...a printing press. Freedom to enter the political discourse started to be called Freedom of the Press, but might as well have been called Freedom of Printers. So although Meade and Ann are doing that job paperlessly, they are The Press. Their credentials will have to be shown on a Kendle or an I-Pad.

I was wondering if in any of the videos you've had the chance to ask any protesters who specifically vilify the Koch bros. about their $20 million donations to the ACLU?

I really wonder why the ravers have picked these guys as the Emmanuel Goldstein for their two (million) minutes' hate, considering how the Koches have really donated relatively very little to Walker, and have supported gay marriage, pro-choice causes, etc. I mean, I would figure they'd vilify some arch-conservatives rather than them, I don't get it. I keep seeing the word "oligarch" pop up from time to time, which scarcely seems to fit either.

I was wondering if in any of the videos you've had the chance to ask any protesters who specifically vilify the Koch bros. about their $20 million donations to the ACLU?

Hah! That would be an awesome question, actually! Here's a source for that story. And they gave the donation together with, drumroll please, George Soros. That's going to cause some heads to explode on all sides. Stories like this remind me of why I like my liberalism tinged with libertarianism. Or is the other way around?

Brian Crouch: I really wonder why the ravers have picked these guys as the Emmanuel Goldstein for their two (million) minutes' hate, considering how the Koches have really donated relatively very little to Walker, and have supported gay marriage, pro-choice causes, etc.

It started because Eric Lipton of the NYTs targeted the Koches with an unsourced quote.

Powerline has the details:

"That interview led to what turned out to be the key paragraph in Lipton's story:

Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown, Mr. Phillips said in an interview on Monday.

This paragraph was seized on by the Left as evidence that the Koch brothers and their company, Koch Industries, are some kind of shadowy force behind Governor Walker's effort to get Wisconsin's labor costs under control.

I was struck by the fact that there was no direct quote. Elsewhere in the article, Lipton did quote Phillips, and so indicated in the usual way with quotation marks. The absence of an actual quotation in the story's key paragraph was striking, to say the least. Others on the Left remedied the deficiency by simply adding the quotation marks."

/full article with more depth at:http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/02/028470.php

I didn't see anything about protesters being arrested, or what they were being arrested for. Nice try though.Not sure what point you're trying to make here. That none of the union members at Madison have been arrested is somehow a victory for your side? OK. I guess you gotta take what you can get. But, Walker's bill just passed in the House and will certainly pass in the Senate once the fleabaggers come back from their Illinois vacation. If that doesn't happen soon then massive layoffs of teachers will ensue. Some victory you libs have there. Nice try though.

Conservative patriotic Americans have not rights whatsoever, and leftist socialists run can just shit all over us. It is now time for middle America to understand, we are finished, done. We are slaves to the socialists. They rule, we are the slaves.

The layoffs will effect the demonstrators who already are vehemently against Warner and the republican legislature. Once the demonstration has run its course, what are these unions and their supporters going to do for an encore?

I suspect we won't hear any substantive, rational response from our resident trolls. Time and political power are on Warner's side.

The reason why Obama takes his time to respond to events is because it seems other people are always there to say that his non response response is the right thing to do.. After people say that he is doing the right thing he makes a flimsy pronouncement saying waht everybody already expects hes going to say.

It's really unfair to criticize the 'legal observers.' The law school, who's actually trained a bunch of students to walk around (on top of the attorneys), stressed that we'd need to make sure to look out for both sides and that no one's First Amendment rights were being impeded. Everything seemed quite civil, so there wasn't much for us to do.

Now, if you guys would like the "fun" view (well, my own personal view) of this whole thing from someone who's actually neutral on the whole issue--I'm sick of the protesters. I'm sick of Madison, which has turned into an absolute circus. We (law students) spend all week doing tons of reading and found ourselves pretty much unable to unwind this weekend. Why? Well, the bars were packed with protesters. Damn those kids.

"I didn't see anything about protesters being arrested, or what they were being arrested for. Nice try though."

I did. There were nine arrests - it was earlier on, when someone tried to gain entry where they were not allowed. I believe some glass got smashed. My impression was that the persons arrested were protesting the bill.

Interesting that you hadn't heard about it. That ought to tell you right there it wasn't a bunch of tea partiers. Had it been, the media would have been talking about it every fifteen minutes.

Police hand-cuffed one protester after he apparently tried to charge into the state Assembly.

Thousands of protesters have jammed the Capitol for days to complain about the bill.

Moments before a roll call began in the Assembly on Thursday, reporters heard a crash outside the chamber. They rushed out and saw a man on the ground. Police officers were on top of him. They handcuffed him and led him away.

A legislative aide said he saw the man rush from the line of protesters and try to charge into the chamber. The man tripped and the police captured him.

The protesters are trying to convince us that they are less than Zombies?...(for the sake of argument lets propose that the british troops in northern ireland were worst than Hitler)..

How do we appease Zombies?

Another head hangs lowly, Child is slowly taken. And the violence caused such silence, Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it's not me, it's not my family. In your head, in your head they are fighting, With their tanks and their bombs, And their bombs and their guns. In your head, in your head, they are crying...

Another mother's breakin', Heart is taking over. When the vi'lence causes silence, We must be mistaken.

It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen. In your head, in your head they're still fighting, With their tanks and their bombs, And their bombs and their guns. In your head, in your head, they are dying...

Together. As if in silent prayer. And whenever I looked out, you were there. Love flowed from our hearts. How could we ever, Stand to be apart?

Don't throw your faith in others away, Because we have ended this way. Don't ever think I don't care about you, What you've always know is true.

It always seems sad, things have to change. Like our feelings, let's not look for blame. Don't throw your faith in others away, Because we have ended this way. Don't ever think I don't care about you, What you've always known is true.

After all is said and done, I am the sorry one. Why must we hurt the people we love? It's like my destiny falls on me from above.

I love you but I can't hang on anymore. I love you but I can't stay anymore.

a bit off topic but Lem brought it up before the effects of demon rum addled his brain :)

The so called prime contenders for the republican nomination for POTUS have been, as far as I can tell, notably absent from this contretemps--am I in error on my observation? Seems to me they might want to be riding the coatails of the republican governors who are in the vanguard of this fight.

"In 2002, through collective bargaining, MTEA won the inclusion of Viagra in its members’ health plans, and by 2004, 10% of union membership (which isn’t a male-dominated set) was subscribing to the benefit — at a cost of more than $200,000 per year to the Milwaukee school district. Not until 2005 was the school district finally able to convince an arbitrator to drop the coverage.

Last year, while the school district faced a $10 million dollar budget shortfall, the MTEA decided it was time to revisit those drug benefits and filed a lawsuit demanding their reintroduction to union health plans—at a projected cost of $786,000 in 2010."

"someone who looks at what's happening and then shades the story to support her agenda."

Do tell.I have long had a difficult time discerning an agenda of Althouse other than sparking conversation, often by questioning what people are saying and doing.

I gather she's been a skeptic since at least age 2, as one can tell from her Santa photos.

Skeptical inquiry isn't an agenda, but a method of approaching the world. As such, it "shades the story", but in a less limiting way than wearing marx-colored glasses does (see Zinn, Chomsky, Obama, 14 Wisconsin Democratic Senators, the Madison protesters).

I did. There were nine arrests - it was earlier on, when someone tried to gain entry where they were not allowed. I believe some glass got smashed. My impression was that the persons arrested were protesting the bill.

..."The public sector labor movement has reached a historical dead end. Cities and states that yield to labor demands have higher costs, higher taxes and higher debt than places that don’t. Over time, those states stand to lose revenue, jobs and population to cheaper and more efficient jurisdictions."

-Walter R. Mead

Here in CO - Our teachers make more and more while our state sinks into debt, and our children get the cuts.

"4:53 — Meade talks to the woman with the "Greedy Obfuscating Plutocrats" sign."

I've always enjoyed this particular talking point. If you're speaking to a leftist, there are two people in the conversation who want your money. And the one who put in zero effort calls you greedy. I don't doubt leftists sincerely think they're right. But the complete lack of understanding their own talking points shows they parrot whatever they hear despite their inability to understand the issues.

I've been follow your blogs on the protests and they're great. Keep up the good work!

A couple questions that you might want to ask:

I've seen reports of the hundreds and maybe thousands of protestors inside the state house. Is it safe to jamb that many people in such a space? There should be a sign somewhere indicating the maximum occupancy? It'd be interesting to compare the legal limit to the estimated number of protestors. If there are too many people in there, why hasn't the Fire Marshal enforced the law?

From the looks of the building it's mainly stone and so probably has light fire sprinkler coverage. All the flamable junk that the protestors have left around creates a fire hazard. What does the Fire Marshal have to say about that?

When Meade asked "What is a legal observer?" and the guy responded later by asking "Are you a reporter?" I was waiting for him (not Meade) to declare "Then you are an illegal observer?"

I love the guy who's "Obfuscation" poster was telling the GOP its problem but it wasn't "his job to fix the GOP". And I assumed this "problem" fit perfectly with his worldview and in fact wasn't a problem but a benefit.

Was it truthful? Well that's another matter.

I'm just amazed the resonance the Koch Brothers get with liberals. If only they could connect them with Sarah Palin. That would be likeconvergence

Are the protesters claiming the Madison Capitol Building as a residence in their tax returns? Surely they should be held to the same standards as Republican Congressmen who sleep on their couch- I'm sure CNN will be right on that story...